Zero Percent with 0 Interest Car Loans

Date: February 20, 2012

Lots of Advertisement and Campaigns been run by Car Dealers to Car Manufacturers from time to time advertising that they can provide Finance at 0 % or No Interest Car Loans. Wondered, when Banks are taking deposits at 10%, then how is it possible to lend Car Loan at 0% !!

No Bank or Financial Institution or Dealer is mad to spend money on advertisement that they want to incur losses by lending at Zero Percent. There is a gimmick involved in it. Heres the gimmick :-

Say, eg You Intend to buy which is priced at say Rs. 11 Lacs and wants to take Finance of Rs. 7 Lac for 36 months

Scenario is that the Rate of Interest of Bank is 11%, and there is discount on car worth Rs. 1,00,000 going on. Now, do understand - how is zero percent finance been calculated

Car Loans at Zero Percent Vs. 11% Scenario

In Actual Scenario, the EMI would be Rs. 22,918 for 36 months. Total Outflow for 36 months would be Rs. 8.25 Lac on loan of Rs. 7 Lac for 36 month @ 11%. Interest Outflow during entire tenor would be Rs. 1.25 Lac on stated loan amount which is payable to Bank.

Now in Changed Scenario wherein dealer is running campaign of 0% Scheme on Car Loan, the Loan here would again be at Rs. 7 Lac, but instead of passing upfront discount benefit on car to customer, the dealer will merge in this discount on car in the Finance Scheme. So, even though if you are taking Loan of Rs. 7 Lac, Bank is effectively making payment of Rs. 6 Lac to Dealer. Your EMI will turn out to be Rs. 19,644 . Interest will be shown on loan of Rs. 7 Lac at .66% , which is effectively at Zero Percent. Your Car Loan Statement of Bank will show in Loan of Rs. 7 Lac, Tenor 36 Months and Interest Rate at .66%. However, fact is that Bank is now calculating Interest on Rs. 6 Lac , due to 1 Lac discount been merged in Finance .

Now Which Scenario is Better

We suggest to always have Plan A, to take upfront discount rather than Plan B to have Zero percent scheme. Reason - Even, if you cant plough back this money in business or any other stream, even FD returns on 1 Lac amount would be at least Rs. 25,000 after TDS in 3 years. Hence, why to block this money in lower EMI unless, you are on heavy debt and only focusing to lower off your EMI.